Friday, 26 June 2015

Tech touch to make Nashik's Kumbh Mela a success

Kumbh Mela is fast approaching and the city youths are doing
their bit to promote the once-in-12-years mega-religious and touristic
attraction through social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter and
Instagram. Wikipedia is one such website that has been utilizing local
youth to help build an accurate webpage on Nashik. Through its project
'Wiki takes Nashik', the website has decided to upload up to 5,000
pictures of Nashik that would provide a glimpse of the city to people
all around the world ahead of the Mela.

Team Wikipedia had in
January sought college students from the city to update information on
Nashik on the backdrop of visitors seeking information about it during
Kumbh. This time too, a similar event has been organized for uploading
pictures about the city on the webpage. The team aims to upload 5,000
pictures by the first week of July.

Over 100 students from
various colleges across the city came forward in January and uploaded
correct information about the city. The information was uploaded under
18 categories including geography, history, mythology, arts and culture,
agriculture, people, industry and tourism.

Abhishek
Suryawanshi, ambassador and vice-president of Wikipedia, New York
chapter, said, "Uploading of the pictures is the next step to give the
readers the look and feel of the various aspects of the city," he said.

Suryawanshi said that Wikipedia's main page on Nashik has been viewed
11,02,481,287 times in the last 60 days since the information was
uploaded. "There are at least 500 viewers daily and the traffic would
only increase as the Mela nears. So it is equally important for viewers
to get a feel of the festivals, places, people and the culture of
Nashik," he added.

He further said that a similar activity was
held in Pune as well last year which received tremendous response and
the same was expected in Nashik. "We have already started receiving
pictures through volunteers. We have appealed to the residents to come
out in large numbers with enthusiasm and contribute in the project by
donating pictures of the city," Suryawanshi said.

Speaking to
TOI, he said a separate event would be held on July 3 and 4 to upload
the pictures on the website. "Pictures would be uploaded on a mass scale
on the two days. Personal, copyrighted and edited pictures would not be
allowed. Pictures that are website compatible and clear would be
preferred from the contributors," Suryawanshi said.

Similarly, a
group of students in the city is busy developing websites and mobile
applications to ensure a comfortable trip and stay to Nashik for
millions visiting Nashik for the Mela. Students from various colleges
have been roped in for what has been termed as KumbhThon, a task to
develop new ideas after identifying problems that the visitors might
face during the religious congregation.